ONE Nation Labour would seek to unify Britain, defend workers' rights and improve their pay in a "race to the top" while the Conservatives would continue to pursue divide-and-rule policies that attacked workers' rights and diminished their pay in a "race to the bottom".

This was the central message of Ed Miliband's speech to the party faithful with their leader seeking to contrast Labour's values aimed at benefiting the many with Tory ones aimed at rewarding the privileged few.

But Mr Miliband also made clear that the 2015 election was not just going to be about policy but also about the qualities of the party leaders.

Taking on criticisms about his own leadership, he declared: "I have got a message for the Tories today: if they want to have a test about leadership and character, be my guest."

He drew a sharp contrast between himself and David Cameron, saying: "When it was Murdoch versus the McCanns, he took the side of Murdoch; when it was the tobacco lobby versus the cancer charities, he took the side of the tobacco lobby; when it was the millionaires who wanted a tax cut versus the people paying the bedroom tax, he took the side of the millionaires."

Producing the loudest applause of his speech, Mr Miliband added: "Come to think of it, here's an even easier way to remember it. David Cameron is the Prime Minister who introduced the bedroom tax, I will be the prime minister who repeals the bedroom tax."

While the Labour leader insisted he would "relish" a battle about leadership, a new survey suggested most voters still did not rate him as a future leader of his country. A Comres snapshot of 2000 people showed six out of 10 felt Mr Miliband did not come across as an election winner with two out of 10 disagreeing, while 49% felt Labour would stand a better chance of winning the 2015 poll with a different leader with only 19% disagreeing.

The Labour leader pledged his government would:

l freeze gas and electricity bills for 20 months before long-term reform of the energy market could be completed;

l cut rates for 1m-plus small businesses in England;

l build 200,000 homes a year;

l rescue the NHS "all over again" from the Tory wreckers.

The party denied its key proposal was a return to the discredited "price controls" of the 1970s, stressing how it was a temporary measure to help consumers while a Labour government set up a regulator, which would force firms to sell wholesale energy into a pooled market.

Closing, he warned his party of a major battle before the election between Labour forces of hope against Conservative forces of fear and added: "I don't want to win this fight for Labour, I want to win it for Britain."

Tory Chairman Grant Shapps dismissed Mr Miliband's policies on energy, business and housebuilding, saying the Labour leader had said nothing about how his party would cut the deficit or fix the welfare system.

"Nothing has changed; it's the same old Labour," declared the Conservative chief. "They still want more spending, more borrowing and more debt; exactly what got us into a mess in the first place. And it is hard-working people who would pay the price through higher taxes and higher mortgage rates and higher bills."

Angus Robertson, for the SNP, said that on cutting rates for small businesses and votes for 16 and 17-year-olds Labour was "playing catch-up with the SNP". He accused Mr Miliband of having a "credibility problem as wide as the Clyde" on energy policy given that when he was Secretary of State for Energy in the last Labour Government he took no action to address Britain's soaring fuel bills.